Review

Review Summary: Imagine a Between the Buried and me, crossed with a Converge that's vocals are the worstest you could ever hear, and you will have this album.

To kick things off, I would like to make sure everybody is clear on the fact that I do not enjoy metalcore. It get's on my nerves with it's repetitive breakdowns, obnoxious, out of tune, screamed vocals, and drumming that seems to exist to just make them look like they are all good at the instruments they play when they are actually not. So imagining what I just said, I checked out Botch, and hey! I didn’t mind some of it. That being said, I still believe it to be highly overrated and it certainly contains a number of flaws which I will cap. The first bad idea is the concept. The concept is simplistic, it’s not even original either. Roman Empire? Like that hasn’t been done thirty thousand times over. This gets really boring and ends up detracting from the album as a whole.

The big flaw that presents itself, like a fat, juicy, cake is obviously the vocals. They're really quite terrible and it is really displeasing. The whole album he resembles an elephant that is trumpeting with a blocked nose. This is a real shame, because the lyrics would be totallly awesome to follow along (although impossible due to the poor vocal effort). They're not even remotely comprehendible, and the poor vocals distracts me from some of the other good things like the guitar and the drums (although show-offy). He has no variety in this album and it is really quite annoying, as his voice is toneless and really lacks depth to make a decent album brilliant.

There are a couple highlights though. Swimming the Channel and Drum N Bass and pretty decent to listen to, as they don’t rape your ears with endless vocals that are greating to listen to. Drum and Bass is a decent closer even though it runs waaay too short for something that should wind up an epic album over a sustained period of time. Overall this album would be a masterpiece if the vocals were improved, and it was an easier listen. However said activities are not performed, and therefore this will remain at a 2.